Node.js: What is it and Why should I care?

After seeing the power of Treeline.io (a visual IDE built on top of Node.js), I’ve been researching a lot about why Node has made such a huge splash in the app-dev community.Everyday, there are new evangelists for Node and after doing my due dilligence, I see why there’s so much momentum. Node is to app development like NoSQL is to RDBMS.

The Solr eclipse is not yet in sight, but I think node is NoSQL’s fast track to actualizing it’s disruptive potential. (Solr eclipse joke: reference)

Before I get ahead of myself, let me answer the most obvious question that comes to mind:

What is Node anyway?

Node.js is an open source, cross-platform runtime environment for server-side networking applications.

What is unique about that? Well, it’s that Node is a back-end JavaScript framework that lets us use the power of a non-blocking asynchronous i/o to build highly scalable real time applications. Moreover, it shattersthe age old problem of integrating front-end JavaScript frameworks with your traditional .NET stack.

Why Should I Care?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned at Sense Corp is that our strengths are in the data space. Collectively, we have a gold mine of data enthusiasts, analysts and architects that many other organizations (like our clients) would kill to have.

There are a lot of people in the company passionate about data and I think many of us realize the pivotal role big data will play over the next 20 years. Not to say RDBMS is dead, but as NoSQL catches up from a performance standpoint it’s not hard to envision a future where all data is stored in a distributed file system, even if modeled like your traditional RDBMS.

Where does Node fit into this?

It’s the fast track to success. Node is very successful at building highly scalable applications because requests do not wait in a queue. Consequently, it is easy to see that the framework doesn’t perform quite as well with computationally heavy applications.

What’s beautiful about this is that Node needs NoSQL as much as NoSQL needs Node. Today’s world is one dominated by API’s and CRUD applications and we are increasingly leveraging web services to do the heavy lifting and processing, and displaying it to the user wrapped in a rich user experience.

Low computational scalability is where node excels, and high computational scalability is where NoSQL excels. To take it back to Bio 101, this is symbiosis par excellence.

What it all means?

Connecting the dots here isn’t too difficult. Node and NoSQL provide us with a huge market opportunity by allowing us to go beyond the traditional BI model and redefine EDW from a NoSQL stand point and Node is the ideal window for delivering real time analytics to our clients. In sum: more value, greater scalability and an opportunity for product development.